West Ham - 1 Middlesbrough - 0 West Ham's players were presumably protected from reading the programme in the anxious moments before yesterday's kick-off for it bore an extremely pessimistic tone.
Despite the manager - later taken to hospital with chest pains - insisting West Ham can stay up, Glenn Roeder's column did not make optimistic reading, while Trevor Sinclair relived the pain of going down with QPR seven years ago.
Even the stadium announcer caught the mood when he welcomed the teams by declaring that West Ham were drinking in the last-chance saloon. Although Sinclair recovered his optimism to score the winner, the result might prove a flicker of light before the plunge into darkness.
West Ham's nervy victory puts them four points adrift of Bolton and three behind Leeds, the teams with whom they are jostling for the last place in the Premiership lifeboat. Fulham will also don a sou'wester if beaten at Leeds tonight but the sobering fact for West Ham, who have by far the worst goal difference of all the threatened clubs, is that they need to win two of their final three games, and maybe all three.
This win, only their eighth of the season, guarantees only that they will stay a Premiership side until Saturday and, with Ian Pearce suspended for their final two games against Chelsea and a rejuvenated Birmingham, the asking rate looks too high.
Their captain Joe Cole and left-back Rufus Brevett could also miss games following their behaviour after the final whistle at Bolton on Saturday, which has provoked a police inquiry and will almost certainly be in the referee Uriah Rennie's report.
Roeder, beginning to doubt there would be a goal when Steve Lomas's overhead kick hit a post in the 64th minute, told Don Hutchison to get warmed up with 14 minutes to go. Sinclair swept home a cross from Glen Johnson and Hutchison was told to put his top back on.
Roeder said: "This was a huge win for us and a thoroughly deserved three points, though it's possible that we might have to win all our remaining games to stay up. But in football, it's very hard to predict results."
That does not apply, however, to Boro playing away. They have lost more games on their travels than anyone except West Brom and scored fewer goals than anyone except Sunderland.
No wonder their manager, Steve McClaren, was terse later: "It was unacceptable to fall below the standards we have set ourselves and we mustn't let our season fizzle out."
WEST HAM: James, Johnson, Pearce, Repka, Brevett, Lomas, Cole, Cisse, Sinclair, Ferdinand, Defoe. Subs Not Used: Van Der Gouw, Hutchison, Dailly, Breen, Garcia. Booked: Brevett. Goal: Sinclair 77.
MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Cooper, Ehiogu, Southgate, Queudrue (Stockdale 53), Greening, Boateng, Wilkshire, Juninho Paulista (Job 46), Christie (Ricketts 72), Maccarone. Subs Not Used: Jones, Doriva. Booked: Queudrue, Greening.
Referee: A Wiley.
